Episode 175: A Multitude of Colors (4)
Kardak was a formidable adversary.
His status as a grand dark sorcerer was impressive enough, but what truly made him terrifying was his genius.
He was the hope of the Poison Arts School.
A prodigy who was once destined to lead the future of the Poison Arts.
This was no exaggeration. Kardak’s skill in crafting poisons was unmatched even among the dark sorcerers of the Poison Arts School.
When Kardak devoted his genius entirely to dark magic, he created new poisons almost daily.
Most knights never even got the chance to swing their swords before falling to him.
“At least it’s Kardak I’m facing,” thought Damian.
Of course, this was not a concern for Damian.
He didn’t see Kardak as a threat at all.
“Poison is useless if it doesn’t affect you.”
During his time as a Death Knight, Damian had never once used poison.
Yet, his mind was filled with all the knowledge of the Poison Arts School, thanks to Dorogo’s teachings.
This allowed him to identify poisons at a glance and understand how to neutralize them.
“This poison burns the nerves and brain. Even a small whiff is hellish.”
When Kardak vaporized his poison into a toxic mist, Damian not only held his breath but also enveloped himself in a magical barrier.
He knew well that this poison could penetrate not just through the lungs but also through the skin.
“It’s a corrosive poison that disrupts magic. No high-class knight could cut through it.”
When Kardak formed a mesh of poison, Damian enhanced his aura using a technique to compress it to its limits.
He knew that the corrosive poison only dissolved the surface of the aura. By compressing it tightly, he was able to tear through the mesh.
“To think a mere high-class knight would force me to use this!”
Even when Kardak unleashed a barrage of explosive needles at close range, Damian remained unfazed.
He was well aware that dark sorcerers of the Poison Arts School always prepared traps for approaching knights.
Thus, Damian had already fortified his defenses, employing techniques of a master class.
‘Heavenly Seamlessness’
A technique mastered by the legendary master known as the Skybreaker in his past life.
Skybreaker could weave his aura into a fabric-like form using Heavenly Seamlessness.
This fabric was far sturdier and sharper than a regular aura blade, and it could move according to the user’s will.
Skybreaker used it to slice through enemies or crush them, or to shield himself from attacks.
Though Damian wasn’t yet a master class, he could still weave his aura around his body. Using this, he deflected all of Kardak’s needles.
“What kind of nonsense is this…!”
Damian swiftly swung his sword, decapitating Kardak. His head flew through the air before hitting the ground.
Damian flicked the blood off his sword. As the droplets hit the earth, the soil sizzled and blackened.
Kardak’s entire body was practically made of poison, so Damian had been careful not to get any blood on him during the fight.
“Argh!”
Suddenly, Kardak’s severed head let out a scream.
“You… you did this to me! I won’t forgive you!”
Despite being reduced to just a head, Kardak was still alive and speaking.
Damian wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t unusual for a grand dark sorcerer to have multiple ways to cling to life.
“A grand dark sorcerer defeated by a mere high-class knight… If this gets out, Rubia will be so disappointed…”
Even in this state, Kardak was worried about losing Rubia’s favor.
“Rubia might abandon me… or even kill me…”
Kardak trembled, caught between the fear of being abandoned by Rubia and the terror of being killed by her.
“At the very least, I’ll… I’ll kill you right here!”
Kardak’s body, lying on the ground, began to swell like a balloon.
As it burst, black smoke billowed out in all directions. Damian was engulfed in the smoke before he could react.
“Haha… I did it. I killed him. Now Rubia will forgive me!”
A resonant hum began to emanate from within the smoke.
Hearing it, Kardak’s expression twisted. It was the same sound that had come from Damian during their battle.
“Why is that sound…?”
The hum grew more intense, and suddenly, the black smoke vanished.
No, it wasn’t gone—it was being drawn in, disappearing somewhere.
As the smoke cleared, Damian reappeared.
He held out one hand, and a ring of magic floated above his palm.
“What… what is that?”
Kardak stared at the ring with bewildered eyes.
It was something beyond his understanding.
He couldn’t fathom what the ring was or how it could absorb the toxic mist.
The technique was called the Convergence of Forces.
A mana technique created by a legendary swordsman of the empire, several generations ago.
Damian had not only mastered this technique but had also advanced it further.
He had developed a method to create an external ring and imbue it with properties.
The ring Damian had created now possessed the properties of the Force Accumulation Technique.
This technique excelled at absorbing external magic.
Damian had applied this principle to the ring, drawing in all the toxic mist.
“You sneaky bastard. If you’re going to die, do it quietly instead of pulling stunts like this.”
The Poison Arts School sorcerers always prepared a method of mutual destruction for when they faced death.
In the early days of the War of Destruction, many knights lost their lives to these tactics.
Knowing this, Damian had been prepared for Kardak’s tricks.
Damian approached Kardak. As the distance closed, Kardak’s expression hardened.
“Don’t think you’re safe just because you killed me. Rubia will avenge me.”
Damian grabbed Kardak’s hair and lifted his head, letting it dangle in the air.
“Rubia isn’t just a beautiful woman! She’s a far superior dark sorcerer than I am! You’re nothing to her…”
Damian extended his other hand, pulling Kardak’s soul from his head.
-What… what… what?
Kardak’s soul cried out in shock.
-A knight manipulating souls? Impossible! Who… who are you…?
Damian didn’t bother answering Kardak’s question. He saw no need to.
Instead, he used dark magic to probe Kardak’s soul, forcibly extracting all memories related to the Mercenary King.
-Ugh… ugh…
Each time the dark magic tore through his soul, Kardak experienced excruciating pain.
After a thorough search, Damian finally found the memory he sought.
“Got it. Here it is.”
With his objective achieved, Damian destroyed Kardak’s soul.
-Aaah! No!
The Poison Arts School sorcerers had tested their poisons on countless humans.
It was obvious how many lives Kardak had sacrificed to reach his position.
To offer some solace to their vengeful spirits, Damian utterly annihilated Kardak’s soul.
He shredded it to pieces and infused it with dark magic, causing it to disintegrate.
Damian dusted off his hands. Kardak’s soul scattered like dust.
“I’d like to move on quickly, but… I need to clean up first.”
Kardak’s body had exploded, scattering flesh and blood everywhere.
These remnants were as deadly as poison, so he couldn’t leave them behind.
Damian meticulously gathered and incinerated them, until he stumbled upon something.
A belt packed with vials of poison.
Though tightly sealed to prevent leakage, the vials exuded an ominous aura, indicating the deadly nature of their contents.
Leaving them behind was too dangerous. Damian considered burning them all.
“Hmm.”
But then, another thought crossed his mind.
They were too ominous and unsettling to carry around, but perhaps they could be useful just once.
Damian decided to keep the vials, storing them in a pocket dimension.
After finishing the cleanup, Damian was finally able to move on.
Damian headed to the location he had seen in Kardak’s memories.
According to the information he extracted, the Mercenary King was currently waiting in a hideout near the border.
The plan was to keep the Mercenary King there temporarily until a messenger from Sla arrived to take him.
The one who had transported the Mercenary King to the hideout was none other than the Dark Knight.
Though the Dark Knight had reached the level of a high-class warrior, Damian wasn’t particularly worried.
Unless it was a Grand Dark Sorcerer, someone of high-class caliber was no match for Damian.
He planned to swiftly eliminate the Dark Knight and free the Mercenary King.
However, when he finally arrived at the hideout, it wasn’t the Dark Knight who greeted him.
“Glad I made it in time.”
It was Rubia.
The disciple of the notorious Slah.
“You’ll pay dearly for killing Kardak, you filthy swindler.”
She stood defiantly in Damian’s path.